Sangdon Kim (b. 1973) works across diverse mediums such as photography, installation, video, sculpture, and performance to visually uncover the underlying roots of the society we live in. He incorporates folkloric spiritual cultures, such as shamanism, as key elements in understanding the world.
 
The artist seeks to confront contemporary society anew by rediscovering lost narratives within Westernized systems and reconnecting them through a fusion of traditional and modern elements.

In 2004, after returning from his studies in Germany, Sangdon Kim held a solo exhibition titled “Congratulations on Moving In” at Art Space Pool in Korea. Upon his return, the landscape that unfolded before him was unrecognizable, transformed by the proliferation of apartment complexes and high-rise buildings. Inspired by this unfamiliarity, the artist decided to document the socio-economic urban landscape of Korea through photography.
 
The photographs showcased in “Congratulations on Moving In” adopted the format of "bird's-eye views," exposing distorted aspects of urban development plans and policies. High-rise buildings in these images were likened to "jewelry rings" adorning the hands of noblewomen. Through this metaphor, Kim sought to highlight the significance of the nature, emotions, culture, and history that have been overshadowed by the metropolitan apartment complexes and skyscrapers, mere "jewelry rings" in his view.

The following year, Kim shifted his focus beyond Seoul to Gyeonggi Province, initiating a project titled Hello (2005), which involved examining and documenting the pressing issues of various regions through photography. He traveled across four areas in northern Gyeonggi—Dongducheon, Pyeongtaek, Yeoju, and Yangju—delving into the intricate dynamics between U.S. military bases and the local economy, as well as the influence of external powers on the lives of local residents. 
 
To adopt the perspective of the residents, Kim engaged in extensive conversations with them, aiming to capture the social, psychological, and cultural landscapes of these regions not through his eyes, but through his ears.

After completing a series of regional projects, Sangdon Kim returned to Bulgwang-dong, where he resided, and began exploring his own identity through his work. During this process, he encountered the vanished small neighborhood shrines that had disappeared due to urban development, along with the fragile beliefs they once embodied. 
 
Amid these observations, Kim sought to capture the invisible, peculiar energy of the place—an amalgamation of its sense of locality, memories of time and space, private recollections of diverse individuals, and the rhythms of everyday life. Using objects from his surroundings, he distilled this essence into his creation. The resulting Bulgwang-dong Totem is a humble totem crafted by the artist, constructed from plastic chairs collected from the neighborhood and adorned with ingredients traditionally believed to boost vitality.

The artist combined plastic chairs with items such as garlic, seaweed, shells, and ginseng—organic or inorganic materials imbued with the energy of regeneration and renewal—to create small shrines. By photographing these creations, he expressed a desire to offer a humble totem to those who had lost theirs.

This approach of using everyday objects as a medium to reveal facets of society is a recurring theme in Kim's work. One of his notable pieces is Step by Step Plant (2011), where he transformed shoe soles—humble yet intimately tied to our daily lives—into planters for flowers. Instead of soil, he filled the pots with cement, another common material in our surroundings. 
 
The artist suggests that the grand history shaping today’s society, as the title implies, begins with seemingly insignificant steps. These steps are not taken by colossal powers but by ordinary individuals—fragile, damaged, and prone to failure—who ultimately constitute the society.

In 2014, Sangdon Kim presented his solo exhibition “Antenna” at the DOOSAN Gallery New York, showcasing assemblages of fragmented objects, humans, and tools standing upright as if transmitting and receiving signals while relying on one another. These antennas, crafted from fragile and non-functional materials such as cardboard boxes, candles, Styrofoam, bean pods, and trash, evoke both mythological undertones and the forms of masterpieces by artists like Brancusi. 
 
During his residency in New York, Kim spent time reflecting on and studying the intersections of Asia’s ancient, modern, contemporary, and future narratives. In the heart of this Western metropolis, he contemplated the scattered fragments of myths that Asia had either abandoned or erased from its own history. It was against this backdrop that he began creating his antennas—useless objects incapable of capturing signals, symbolizing the disconnection and fragmentation of cultural heritage.

Among these works, Torma Antenna (2014) draws inspiration from the traditional Tibetan torma towers, which historically contained significant offerings and materials used to make supplications to deities. Through this piece, Kim explores the cultural and civilizational correlations that emerge between nations with different traditions, adding his characteristic wit. 
 
At the same time, the work highlights the contrasting ways in which Eastern and Western perspectives interpret and engage with symbolic objects and imagery.

In 2014, after hearing news about the Sewol ferry disaster and the sinkholes appearing across Korea, Kim described feeling as though a rupture had occurred in time and space. In response to these events, he began creating Monument Zero as a way to commemorate those who had become absent from the world due to such tragedies. 
 
As a "monument to absence," Monument Zero employs materials like paper and clay to embody the sense of absence in narrative, form, time, and space. Kim cut and assembled paper, crafting shapes and spaces that appeared and disappeared in the process, which he then captured through photography. This process of shaping absence with tangible materials and translating it into images creates a liminal space between the physical and the immaterial, presence and absence.

Sangdon Kim participated in the 13th Gwangju Biennale, presenting works that connected everyday objects commonly found in modern society with Korea's traditional shamanistic culture. He viewed shamanism, rooted in the integration of community and indigenous Korean culture, as a crucial framework for understanding the world.
 
Kim believed that while the shamanistic worldview might seem distant from our daily lives, it still resides within us in the form of collective unconsciousness. Through this shamanism-inspired integrative approach, he translated what has been lost—our primordial archetypes—into the language of art, offering a reflection on our shared cultural origins.

For example, March (2021) is a work that borrows from Korea's traditional funeral culture, using objects commonly found in our surroundings. The traditional funeral structure, the sangyeo (a bier used to carry the deceased), is placed on a shopping cart, while upright sculptures wearing wooden, indigenous masks form a march. Inside the sangyeo, a human figure is depicted shedding tears and holding a camera. 
 
This work reflects the unstable reality of contemporary society, which is shaped by the glitzy façade of modern capitalism, the power of mass media, and the sanitized, seemingly uniform nature of the world. At the same time, through the medium of traditional mourning rituals, which are collective acts of grief and crisis management, Kim highlights that collectivity and communal living are inherent to the human condition. 

Through such works, Kim continues to reveal the forgotten narratives embedded in everyday objects, through which our lives and history are reflected. His art is not merely about linking the past with the present; it delves into the human condition, life, and the foundational elements of existence. By reconnecting the broken and forgotten, his work seeks to heal and mourn social wounds.

“I thought I had to enter the narrative. After the ‘Saemaul Undong’ (New Village Movement), as we became increasingly Westernized, we began to follow the systems created by the West, and in doing so, there was a part of us that abandoned our own narrative.
 
So, I wanted to create a new form of narrative. I wanted to connect the extension of modern tools with that which is already embedded in our collective unconscious." (Sangdon Kim, News Free Zone Interview, December 6, 2021)

Sangdon Kim received a Meisterschueler from Universitaet der Kuenste Berlin. He has had solo exhibitions at Project Space Mium (Seoul, 2022), DOOSAN Gallery (New York, 2014), Art Sonje Center (Seoul, 2012), Bielefelder Kunstverein (Bielefeld, Germany, 2011), and art space pool (Seoul, 2004).

 He has participated in domestic and international group exhibitions and biennales, including at Gwangju Biennale (2021), Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2018), Asia Pacific Triennale, Australia (2012), Busan Biennale (2006, 2012), Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico (2009), New Museum, New York (2008), etc.
 
He won the 1st Anguk Art Award (2021), 3rd Doosan Yonkang Foundation Art Award (2012), 12th Hermes Korea Art Award (2011), and the 10th Daum Artist Award (2011). He served as Artistic Director at the Paik Nam June Memorial Museum (2016-17).

References

• 김상돈, Sangdon Kim (Artist Webstie)
• 뉴스프리존, [인터뷰-작가 김상돈 ①] "잃어버린 한국의 '내러티브'와 현대의 도구를 연결하고 싶었죠", 2021.12.06 
• 아트 스페이스 풀, 입주를 축하합니다 (Art Space Pool, Congratulations on moving in)
• 국립현대미술관, 김상돈 | 일보 일보 화초 | 2011 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), Sangdon Kim | Step by Step Plant | 2011)
• 두산아트센터, 안테나 (DOOSAN Art Center, Antenna)
• 제13회 광주비엔날레, 김상돈 (13th Gwangju Biennale, Sangdon Kim)
• 프로젝트 스페이스 미음, 김상돈 (Project Space Mium, Sangdon Kim)